Wikipedia bots

For the internal project page, see Wikipedia:Bots.

Internet bots that perform tasks in Wikipedia

Bots are computer scripts that operate in an automated or semi-automated way and can perform certain actions more efficiently than humans.

Wikipedia bots are Internet bots (computer programs) that perform simple, repetitive tasks on Wikipedia. One prominent example of an internet bot used in Wikipedia is Lsjbot, which has generated millions of short articles across various language editions of Wikipedia.[1]

## Activities

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Computer programs, called bots, have often been used to automate simple and repetitive tasks, such as correcting common misspellings and stylistic issues, or to start articles, such as geography entries, in a standard format from statistical data.[2][3][4] Additionally, there are bots designed to automatically notify editors when they make common editing errors (such as unmatched quotes or unmatched parentheses).[5]

Anti-vandalism bots like ClueBot NG, created in 2010 are programmed to detect and revert vandalism quickly.[3] Bots are able to indicate edits from particular accounts or IP address ranges, as occurred at the time of the shooting down of the MH17 jet incident in July 2014 when it was reported edits were made via IPs controlled by the Russian government.[6]

Bots on Wikipedia must be approved before activation.[7]

A bot once created up to 10,000 articles on the Swedish Wikipedia in a day.[8] According to Andrew Lih, the current expansion of Wikipedia to millions of articles would be difficult to envision without the use of such bots.[9] The Cebuano, Swedish and Waray Wikipedias are known to have high numbers of bot-created content.[10]

One notable development in recent years has been the use of bots to perform vandalism-fighting chores in place of human labor. According to recent estimates, 50% of all vandalism is already eliminated by bots. Human patrollers have congratulated the bots on their accuracy and speed in a number of remarks posted on their talk pages.[11]

## Bot policy

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The best method for reducing hazards without compromising functionality is Wikipedia's bot policy.[citation needed] Bots that update metatags and fix spelling "must be harmless and useful, have approval, use separate user accounts, and be operated responsibly," according to the guidelines.[7] Only once their application has been accepted by the platform and they have been publicly registered online can Wikipedia bots go live.[7]

## Interactions

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On Wikipedia, bots typically engage in more reciprocal and prolonged conversations than humans. However, bots in various cultural contexts may act differently, much like people. According to research, even comparatively "dumb" bots have the potential to produce complex relationships, which has important consequences for the study of artificial intelligence. Comprehending the factors that influence bot-bot interactions is essential for effective performance.[12]

## Types of bots

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Icon that typically represents the bot user right on Wikipedia

One way to sort bots is by what activities they perform:[13][14]

* content creation, such as by procedural generation
* fixing errors, such as by copy editing or addressing link rot
* adding connectors, such as with hyperlinks to content elsewhere
* tagging content with labels
* repairing vandalism, such as ClueBot NG[15]
* clerk, updating reports
* archiving old discussions or tasks
* moderation systems to combat against spam or misconduct
* recommender systems to encourage users
* notifications, such as with push technology and pull technology
* repairing broken external links, such as InternetArchiveBot

## References

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1. ^ Gulbrandsson, Lennart (17 June 2013). "Swedish Wikipedia surpasses 1 million articles with aid of article creation bot". Wikimedia Blog. Archived from the original on 24 February 2018. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
2. ^ "Wikipedia:Bots". English Wikipedia.
3. ^ a b Daniel Nasaw (July 24, 2012). "Meet the 'bots' that edit Wikipedia". BBC News.
4. ^ Halliday, Josh; Arthur, Charles (July 26, 2012). "Boot up: The Wikipedia vandalism police, Apple analysts, and more". The Guardian. Retrieved September 5, 2012.
5. ^ Aube (March 23, 2009). "Abuse Filter is enabled". Wikipedia Signpost. Retrieved July 13, 2010.
6. ^ Aljazeera, July 21, 2014, "MH17 Wikipedia entry edited from Russian Government IP Address". Negin (July 21, 2014). "MH17 Wikipedia entry edited from Russian government IP address". The Stream - Al Jazeera English. Archived from the original on November 16, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2014.
7. ^ a b c Wikipedia:Bot policy
8. ^ Jervell, Ellen Emmerentze (July 13, 2014). "For This Author, 10,000 Wikipedia Articles Is a Good Day's Work". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
9. ^ Andrew Lih (2009). The Wikipedia Revolution, chapter Then came the Bots, pp. 99–106.
10. ^ Wilson, Kyle (11 February 2020). "The World's Second Largest Wikipedia Is Written Almost Entirely by One Bot". Vice.
11. ^ de Laat, Paul B. (2015). "The use of software tools and autonomous bots against vandalism: eroding Wikipedia's moral order?". Ethics and Information Technology. 17 (3): 175–188\. doi:10.1007/s10676-015-9366-9. ISSN 1388-1957.
12. ^ Tsvetkova, Milena; García-Gavilanes, Ruth; Floridi, Luciano; Yasseri, Taha (2017-02-23). Gómez, Sergio (ed.). "Even good bots fight: The case of Wikipedia". PLOS ONE. 12 (2): e0171774. arXiv:1609.04285. Bibcode:2017PLoSO..1271774T. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0171774. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 5322977. PMID 28231323.
13. ^ Zheng, Lei (Nico); Albano, Christopher M.; Vora, Neev M.; Mai, Feng; Nickerson, Jeffrey V. (7 November 2019). "The Roles Bots Play in Wikipedia". Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. 3 (CSCW): 1–20\. doi:10.1145/3359317.
14. ^ Dormehl, Luke (20 January 2020). "Meet the 9 Wikipedia bots that make the world's largest encyclopedia possible". Digital Trends.
15. ^ "This machine kills trolls". 18 February 2014.

## External links

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* Wikipedia:Bots
* Wikipedia:Bot policy
* Wikipedia:History of Wikipedia bots
* Wikidata item for Wikipedia:Bots, listing all Wikipedia:Bots project pages

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